Take Action
Registration is Open! You are invited to Food in the City: The Conference, May 25-26, 2012, a celebration of the innovative and groundbreaking work being done in our city to help build a resilient local food system. Register early to secure your place at the table for a conversation about developing a city-wide food and agriculture strategy together. Participants will be able to learn and engage in conversation about food and agriculture issues, hear about the development of a preliminary draft strategy and play a part in promoting Edmonton as a leader in innovative municipal food and agriculture policy and initiatives. Program highlights:
- Keynote speaker Wayne Roberts, author of the No Nonsense Guide to World Food
- Workshops
- The “Taste of Alberta” evening reception
Use your voice and tell the Alberta Government to stop loggin in Castle Special Place
Stop the destruction of the Castle Wilderness!
The following is an excerpt from an article from the Tyee. It is posted here to summarize the situation that protesters are facing right NOW in the Castle Wilderness area. They are facing arrest and eviction on Wednesday. The Premiers office does not have an answering machine service set up, and their office closes at 5pm MST. They re-open at 8am, and the Premier has asked for a head count on how many people call up in support of this issue! Please take a moment to call: 780-427-2251
"Government enforcement actions against citizens opposed to logging in a world famous Alberta watershed will likely cost taxpayers more money than total timber revenue.
"This is clearly an example of government waste," says Gord Petersen, a local resident and member of the ad hoc Stop the Castle Logging Group.
The Alberta government has responded with a massive enforcement effort against mostly senior citizens trying to respect water and wildlife," adds Petersen.
Since Jan. 12 scores of protestors, including grandmothers and two 77-year-old ranchers (all supported by thousands of Albertans), have sought to prevent the removal of 3,750 truckloads worth of timber by Spray Lake Sawmills from the core of the Castle wilderness area. The region is located south of Crowsnest Pass along the BC border.
Local foresters estimate the logging permit will generate no more than $100,000 worth of income for the government from stumpage fees and that only 60 per cent of the timber slated for cutting can be turned into dimensional lumber.
"That revenue won't even cover the damage to the public roads," suspects 56-year-old Petersen. "It's welfare logging that benefits a private company at the expense of the public interest."
After peaceful protestors stood in front of logging machinery last week on a public road, government officials issued a flurry of legal paper including a development notice, a trespass notice, an enforcement order and now a court order.
The enforcement order, which the group is appealing as an infringement of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even banned protestors from occupying or using "any other public lands in the Province of Alberta unless otherwise authorized to so."
(Andrew Nikiforuk, http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2012/01/31/Alberta_Launches_Legal_Attack/)
Help support the protesters who are protecting this important area of the Prairie ecosystem!
Call Premier Redford immediately and tell her to stop the logging of the Castle Wilderness Area! Call as early as you can, as the enforcement order is for Wednesday!
Premier Alison Redford
307 Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
T5K 2B6
PH: 780-427-2251
premier@gov.ab.ca
Honourable Frank Oberle
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development
420 Legislature Building
10800 – 97 Avenue Edmonton, AB
T5K 2B6
PH: 780-415-4815
srd.minister@gov.ab.ca
Honourable Evan Berger
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
MLA Livingstone Macleod
228 Legislative Building
10800 - 97 Avenue, Edmonton, AB
T5K 2B6
PH: 780-427-2137
livingstone.macleod@assembly.ab.ca
Honourable Diana McQueen
Minister of Environment & Water
425 Legislature building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
T5K 2B6
PH: 780-427-2391
environment.minister@gov.ab.ca
Backgrounder:
- The Castle is part of the headwaters for the Oldman River, which feeds over two million people across the prairies - The Castle contains core habitat for Alberta's threatened grizzly bears - Protecting the Castle will help protect the entire Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, and fight the effects of climate change - The Castle Special Place is a unique region of irreplaceable spiritual, recreational and ecological values - This area is becoming increasingly degraded. Logging the Castle will affect local tourism operators, as the land is cleared of the beauty that attracts touristshttp://www.sierraclub.ca/en/blog/bradford-duplisea/castle-blockade-update
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/01/17/calgary-winter-castle-logging-protest.html
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2012/01/31/Alberta_Launches_Legal_Attack/
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Anti+logging+protesters+have+until+Wednesday+leave+face+arrest/6076316/story.html
CALGARY - Tomorrow morning join Sierra Club Prairie, Greenpeace and Keepers of the Athabasca as they stand with the Chief and Council of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) while they present Shell executives with a "gift" regarding unmet agreements made between Shell and the First Nation regarding existing tar sands projects within ACFN traditional territory and Canada’s pristine Athabasca, A UNESCO heritage site.
These agreements were meant to ensure Shell would provide measures to lessen impact of these mines on ACFN, including agreements to address environmental issues and mitigation. Shell failure to meet these agreements with ACFN has led to harmful impacts on the environment and ACFN’s constitutionally protected rights and culture. Shell is also proposing to massively expand one of these existing projects, and also has plans for a completely new project in an area that is very important to ACFN’s traditional way of life.
The film, White Water, Black Gold will screen in Calgary at the Plaza Theatre (1133 Kensington Road N.W.) on Friday, November 25th
“Whether it’s a dam breach that could destroy the third largest watershed in the world (the Mackenzie), tailings ponds that are approaching the size of a great lake, or tanker traffic on Canada’s pristine west coast: it’s clear that our country’s water is in trouble,” said David Lavallee, Director of White Water, Black Gold. “Most people do not know that the tar sands impacts actually span half the country.”
Director David Lavallee worked as a hiking guide in the Columbia Icefields for 15 years. He saw profound changes to the mountain landscape as Alberta ramped up growth in the extremely water-intensive tar sands industry downstream. Lavallee’s burning curiosity to find out why took him on a three-year journey across Western Canada that resulted in the production of this film.
“I wanted to make this film to tell the story of water and how the tar sands are impacting an element essential to all life on this planet,” said Lavallee. “I hope that audiences will listen to the voices in this film, to see the impact the tar sands are having and be moved enough to become advocates for an energy future that does not pose such a great risk to our water resources.
The documentary is narrated by Peter Coyote.
This morning, Ecojustice filed a petition to federal Environment Minister Peter Kent, calling on him to help protect the Greater sage-grouse, an endangered bird on the brink of extinction in Canada.
The sage-grouse — known for its spectacular mating dance — once inhabited sage-brush grasslands across the country. Now it’s only found in parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, where it receives little protection from the provincial governments.
Why? Scientific research indicates that oil, gas and industrial development in and around sage-grouse habitat has played a leading role in their population crash. In order to survive and thrive, the sage-grouse require restrictions on this development in areas where they spend the winter, breed, nest and raise their young.
As few as 13 male birds currently remain in Alberta and at last count, as few as 42 males were left in Saskatchewan. Scientists predict that, in the absence of meaningful protection, sage-grouse will disappear from Alberta as soon as next year and be completely extinct in Canada within a decade.
Ecojustice and an international coalition of environmental groups are calling on Minister Kent to recommend that the federal government issue an emergency protection order for the sage-grouse. This kind of order could prohibit any activity that might further threaten sage-grouse or their habitat, giving their small population a chance to recover.
Our Water Is Not For Sale, in cooperation with the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, has produced a new brochure, featuring a postcard to the Environement Minister, to build awareness and support action on Alberta's critical water issues and the threat of water markets.
To mark the official launch of the Petition Supporting a Legislated Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas in Nova Scotia, Sierra Club Canada – Atlantic Canada Chapter presents a page dedicated to everything you need to know about fracking. To accomplish this, we at the Sierra Club have created the Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing in Atlantic Canada. This guide outlines the fracking process, the risks fracking poses (to air, water, and our economy), as well as a look at fracking in the four Atlantic Provinces.
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